Alexander III of Russia

Alexander III of Russia (10 March 1845-1 November 1894) was Czar of the Russian Empire from 13 March 1881 to 1 November 1894, succeeding Alexander II of Russia and preceding Nicholas II of Russia.

Biography
Alexander was born in the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg, Russian Empire on 10 March 1845, the son of Czar Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. He studied law at Moscow State University, and he became the new heir to the empire after the death of his brother in 1865. On 13 March 1881, Alexander succeeded his father as czar after Ignacy Hryniewiecki assassinated him with a bomb, and he was a determined autocrat. Alexander had Interior Minister Vyacheslav von Plehve crush the Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries and had Procurator-General Konstantin Pobedonostev tighten censorship and control education. Alexander promoted the Russification of the ethnic and religious minorities of Russia, including increasing economic and social restrictions on Jews and encouraging anti-Jewish riots (the pogroms). Protestants in the Baltics and Catholics in Poland would also be harassed under Alexander. Alexander died of kidney disease in 1894 at the age of 49, and his son Nicholas II of Russia succeeded him as czar.